Institutions from the DR, Venezuela, Colombia & Peru Win the Inter-American Awards for Microenterprise Development

by AirBourne / September 25th, 2012

Barbadian Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno will acknowledge winners during the Foromic in Barbados, 1-3 October

Banco ADOPEM of the Dominican Republic, Banca Comunitaria Banesco from Venezuela, Financiera Comultrasan from Colombia, and Colectivo Integral de Desarrollo CID from Peru, have won this year’s Inter-American Awards for Microenterprise Development for their excellence in providing support to microenterprises in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The winners will be announced Oct. 1, during the inauguration of the 2012 Foromic, the region’s leading event for supporting and financing microenterprises, SMEs, and small farmers in Latin America and the Caribbean. Foromic will take place in Bridgetown, Barbados, from Oct. 1–3.

The award for the best microfinance institution went to Banco ADOPEM, of the Dominican Republic, for its innovative and comprehensive approach to serving clients, mainly women, youth and children, with loans, credit and savings products, as well as training and providing financial education through a telenovela. Banco ADOPEM started off as an NGO in 1999 and became a formal bank in 2004.

In addition to the award for the best microfinance institutions, this year’s awards recognized institutions that created successful savings products for low income populations, including women, rural microentrepreneurs, and other underserved populations.

Banca Comunitaria BANESCO, a unit of a major Venezuelan commercial bank, won in the category of large institutions for promoting savings among unbanked population in low-income neighborhoods. BANESCO offers counseling and an easy-to-use branchless banking service. In the category of financial institutions with less than $1 billion in assets, Financiera COMULTRASAN from Bucaramanga, a regulated Credit Union in Colombia, won for its focus on providing flexible savings products and financial education and solutions adapted to the needs of low-income populations in rural areas.

In an effort to provide more economic opportunities for poor and low- income youth, the award for Excellence in Youth Entrepreneurship honored the Colectivo Integral de Desarrollo for its entrepreneurship training model “Make Your Business a Reality”. This innovative program promotes the development of skills and abilities needed to create and manage a business, providing an efficient response to young people’s demands.

Each of the winners will receive a special recognition from the Citi Foundation, one of the sponsors of the 2012 Foromic, which will provide certificates for specialized leadership training from Women’s World Banking, Red Financiera Rural, and the SEEP Network.